Build Them Up, Then Take Her Down
by dead.tribute.no1498
Summary: Loosely based off the events in Portal 2, however it incorporates my own Co-op story and an new Core. Future plot plan is a little unstable though, I have had different plots in mind.
1. Sixty Dollars

_**Author's Note:**_** EEEEEEEE! :D**

**Prelude:**

I stepped into the elevator.

It descended for a real long time. No one had told me about the reverse climb down. They just walked up to me at the park bench in New York. Living alone and steadily running out of money, I thought this proposition would bring good things.

Everything _appeared_ to be going all fine on the one-hour flight. I stared at the countryside slowly passing by, the clouds rolling on.

They transported me in a stretch limo, and I was feeling like a celebrity, at least for a little while when we pulled up to what appeared to be a mine entrance in the middle of nowhere.

The elevator came to a jostling stop. It creaked open. In front of me stood a quite out-of-place looking building. It looked as if it deserved to be placed in the center of futuristic-metropolitan New York, New York. A large majority of it was composed of glass, however, it was underground, being completely encompassed by solid, grey rock. The orange lettering and constant reminders to keep my hands off the glass were very welcoming.

Suddenly, I was startled by a thundering voice.

"Hello new test subjects! Oh, what?"

I could distinctly hear a female talking in the background.

"Excuse me, welcome test sub_ject_. Just a few more steps to go before you get your sixty bucks."

I heard a chair rolling around.

"Step into Aperture Science, the makers of the nineteen seventeen and twenty fifths century. After you complete signing the three year contract, you may call a Quantum Tunneling Device Dispenser Associate to obtain your very own," he took a very long and audible gasp, "Aperture Science Quantum Tunneling Device...once your Test Subject Position is up."

I walked through the sliding glass doors to find a female with her hair held up in a tight bun. She was in a tight white lab coat, the orange Aperture logo on top of her name, Laina Grant.

"Hello!" I greeted brightly.

"Mhmm," she responded, not even caring to look up at me while she fervently wrote notes. She looked up at me after a few seconds. When we made eye contact, I cocked my head in confusion. _Were the tests starting _already_?_

"Sorry, Laina," she stuck out her hand, and I accepted the offer.

"No worries. So when do I get my Qua-"

"Woah, woah, woah, you've still got to sign the contract honey. Follow me."

She led me down a short hallway, through another set of sliding auto doors and to a desk in the middle of a sea of desks. The top was concealed by her torso.

"Stick out your hands," she said. I raised an eyebrow, following.

She turned around a dropped a stack of papers as thick, maybe thicker, into my hands. I stumbled forward slightly from the sheer weight. I looked back from the the "contract" to Laina. She pulled a tight smile.

"I know." She brought her clipboard down. "Here have a seat."

I sat down in front of her desk.

"Yeah, I have to watch you sign _every_ page, so we both get equal shares of torture."

"Heh." I let a short laugh.

Thirty minutes after, both of us struggling to stay awake, she straightens her posture saying, "You know what, I've never done this before, and I'm only doing this because I really don't feel like doing this three times a day. I'll just waive this contract."

"Cool." I looked up at her. "Thanks."

"No worries." She typed a few commands into her computer.

After five more minutes of staring up at the clock, the computer screen, Laina, and other Associates, she said, "Okay, so your Test Subject Position is 351849. With the steady stream of Test Subjects coming in from the Testing Spheres, you should go in maybe 50 years from now."

"What? Ugh."

"You _do_ have three options. You can just wander around this place for all that time, go into Suspension, or just opt out, but just saying," she leaned in closer, "I wouldn't opt out 'cause the CIA, FBI, and NSA will be all over you. You won't be able to shower without being bugged."

I sighed. "Well might as well go for Suspension then?"

"Okay."

This "suspension" sounded like something my school would do.

"Before, yo-"

"Done," she interrupted. "Sorry."

I laughed a little. "It's fine. But what's Suspension?"

"Oh we give you a nice room, complete with closet, desk, queen bed, TV, fridge, decorated pretty fine. Then we put you in stasis."

"What's stasis?"

"It's just a point where we sustain you. You don't age. It's almost like a coma, but I'm not allowed to explain how we do it."

Two men in all black walked up behind me.

"Good night Michael."

"Wh-"

They lifted me by my arms. Laina came forward with needle.

"What are you doing?!"

I was thrashing around, the Associates around me paying no attention.

Fifty years. I would be at least seventy by then.

The last thing I remember was being flung over one guy's shoulder and fading to black.

* * *

The next time I woke up, I was staring up at an off-white and slightly yellowed ceiling. I took a blink and it instantly aged at least a hundred more years with cracks and crevices all over the place. The island-themed wallpaper was peeling. The TV displayed an island scene with a new logo and words spread out. I took a look around. Looks like Laina wasn't lying. Getting out of bed and looking down, I saw my old flannel shirt and cargos were replaced with a bland orange jumpsuit. I took a look around the back using the glass as a makeshift mirror. There was a large logo printed on the back. Raising an eyebrow, I looked towards the screen and it read, "We currently experiencing technical difficulties due to sudden apocalyptic circumstances. Thank you Test Subjects for remaining in your stasis chambers. -Cave Johnson, CEO Aperture Science."

I stared at it for a moment.

"What?"

"Good morning!" I jumped at the sound. It wasn't a voice I remembered though, it was more rehearsed. "You have been in Suspension for 9999999," he trailed off and after a few more nines, "years. In compliance with state and federal regulations, your quinquagesimannual physical and mental reinvigoration exercise has been commenced."

There was a pause. "You will hear a buzzer. When you hear the buzzer look up at the ceiling." It went off.

"Whatever."

"Awaiting completion."

There was a knock at the door after a few minutes.

"'ey, you sent off a signal. You okay? Still haven't completed your test." said with a thick, average American voice.

"You think?"

"Pff. Go 'head. I can't come in until you finish."

"'k."

I looked up.

"Very good. This completes the gymnastic portion of the test. Please walk in front of the artwork."

The carpet felt soft as it brushed along my feet.

"Hey don't get too comfy in there."

"You will hear a buzzer. When you hear the buzzer, stare at the art."

Buzz.

"Good. This completes the mental reinvigoration portion. Please return to the bed."

I walked over to the bed, the door busting open.

"NONONONONONONONONONONO!" he said, the fastest I've ever heard someone repeat "no".

"Phew. Didn't want to go through that again."

I jumped back as I discovered the voice wasn't emanating from a person.

"Oh my god!" I tried to look around the sphere, but it kept turning its orange light towards me.

"I'm trying to,"

"Excuse you," the male voice responded.

I never thought I'd see this kind of technology. Apparently technology has now become capable of human comprehension.

"Why did you, uh, yeah?"

"Well last time someone woke up, I forgot to warn them to avoid the bed. Poor sucker's never gon' wake up 'cause main power is down. The reactors ar-"

There was a rattling explosion.

"Oh I see."

"Yeah."

"Just out of curiosity, what year is it now?"

"2132," he said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"WHAT?"

"Woah, woah, calm down, the last time someone woke up was like, I don't know maybe 27 years ago. Anyways we gotta get outta here. Hold on to something. He disappeared through a pair of doors in the ceiling.

"Might wanna watch for that window over there."

"Wait, wait, wait, what if the bed falls on top of me?" I screamed out in fear.

"Oh don't be a pussy, everything's bolted into the floor."

Now that he said it, I just now noticed. The room jolted forward. I jumped into the closet next to the bed.

"The unloading bay is five minutes away."

I could feel the room smoothly maneuvering obstacles obscured by the encompassing walls. The room came to a stop and swung back and forth. We moved up, but suddenly a large metal pole stabbed right through my bed.

"Sorry about that!"

He maneuvered the room off the pole and we came to rest on a platform.

"You can open the door now. I'll meet with you ahead. Just follow the sound of my voice."

Suddenly the whole entire room turned pitch black.

"Shit."

"Don't worry I'm here." ...outside my door.

I felt around the walls like a blind mole until I found the door knob. Suddenly my companion moved away.

"I never got to know your name."

"Jake."

I concluded I was in a hallway, so I walked a little.

"Aren't you going to ask for mine?"

"No, Michael, all your info is printed right here on the outside in a handy little bar code. Age is 184, height 4'5''."

"Cool." Like I wanted to be reminded of how short I was.

I bumped into a wall. There was a spark to my right. It was a cut wire emanating blinding white sparks. Every time it sparked I could see overturned desks and papers scattered all over the place. The exit to the room was on the opposing corner. There were puddles littering the room. I tripped and slipped.

"Dude, I thought they only hired people who met the requirements. When were you recruited?"

I tried to replicate Cave Johnson's voice, "In the nineteen seventeen and twenty fifths century."

Jake mumbled for a little bit, "Oh of course. Classic Cave."

After three minutes of struggle I finally made past. There was barely enough light to illuminate past the door. I felt around. Yay. Another hallway. I tripped on something.

"Oh, yeah, there should be an Aperture Science Handheld Quantum Tunneling Device in that hallway somewhere. The Long-Fall Boots should be around it somewhere. I wouldn't recommend leaving without them."

When I found the boots, it came inches close and they instantly attached to my legs. I picked up the ASHQTD and kept walking. There was a push bar door. I burst through and fell straight down.

"Hold on tight to that ASHPD, you'll need it!"

I barely heard him through my screaming though.

I was anticipating for all my bones to break when I hit the bottom. I clenched the portal device close and tightened my eyes.

"Come on man, quit being such a wuss."

I opened my eyes and Jake was right in front of me, startling me and causing me to fall back, the portal device crushing my stomach, I grunted. Jake laughed.


	2. Refusal

"Asshole," I retorted.

"I'm sorry but it's hilarious just watching you struggle," he said not giving a single fuck.

I looked around. Aperture definitely has changed last time I remember. They went from spheres that were filled with acidic water to more square chambers with bottomless drops. I don't know which I hate more. Jake rolled along on his rail, humming something. It was very hard to distinguish whether I was just dreaming under suspension or if this was real life. Could you smell in your dreams? I didn't think so. The smell of metal, mold, and plant growth hung in the air. We were walking along a catwalk which lead to the only rounded chamber in the entirety of this place. It had a large Aperture logo imprinted on its side and a large door in the center.

_Boom._

Jake stopped right in his tracks.

"Man, what is up with her lately?" he mumbled.

"Who?"

"What?"

"Who?"

"Who who?"

I sighed. "The lady you're talking about!"

"Oh _her_. Yeah, she runs this whole place. The Test Chambers, the AC, the bots, the reactors."

"Her name?" I insisted as we neared the chamber.

"GLaDOS," Jake said.

"Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System," said a chilling, computerized female voice.

I stopped right in my tracks.

"Who was that."

"It was me," said this "GLaDOS".

I shivered.

"Come on you big wuss she can't hurt you," Jake waited for me to draw closer.

He quietly said, "Actually she can and every bot in this facility fears her."

My eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. We finally entered the chamber. I looked up to greet a massive machine trimmed in white with wires, pistons, and complex circuitry lining every millimeter of her shiny chassis.

"I'm GLaDOS. It's wonderful you've _finally_ come out of Suspension, Michael Trent, after 164 years." I didn't know whether I should've been happy or scared since I was supposed to test 114 years ago under _human_ supervision.

"Mmm, we're in trouble," whispered Jake.

"It's been too long since the last test subject. Boy have I got a plethora of tests for you."

The doors behind us slammed closed, causing the floor to rumble. I heard hissing and looked up to find mechanical arms descending rapidly to bring me to my doom.

"NEVER!"

I circled around GLaDOS, who was struggling to catch me, like a toddler refusing a diaper change.

"HURUURURHGHASDUR!"

Every light in the chamber turned red."

"Crap," I said. I spotted Jake in one area laughing his ass off.

"Would you like to spend time in Test Chamber 56 with all the screaming turrets, Jake?"

He gasped loudly, the two slides near his "eye" widening, "NO, no! Please have mercy!" he pleaded. It was now my turn to laugh.

Behind GLaDOS, two elevators popped up, two robots contained in them. One looked more feminine while the other looked like a ball with arms and legs.

"After him!"

They both held matching portal guns. After the command, they instantly shot portals in unison and jumped into them. I sprinted off in what appeared to be the safest direction until the two dropped down right in front me. We met for just a second, then I leaned back, preparing to run for it when they grabbed me.

Right before they did however, I spotted a poster by the desk at the entrance.

**_Think with _****_Portals_**

I suddenly came up with an idea. There was no ceiling to this chamber. I pushed both bots backward, sending them into my primary portal which I shot towards a random location. Jake was sporting a surprised look, with which GLaDOS responded, "Well don't just hang there, do something!"

I shot my secondary portal at the wall in front of me, projecting me back towards my primary portal. Before I entered the the portal again, I shot another at the floor close to the wall. The two bots were struggling to get up. When they did, they ran into each other, GLaDOS scolding them. I flew out my secondary portal, flying a few feet about the wall. I backflipped over and landed on the catwalk.

The door was opening. There was an open Test Chamber up ahead. I shot my primary into it and ducked into my secondary when I arrived at the spot where I landed.

_Goodbye suckers._

* * *

When I came into contact with the ground, I watched as the three fervently searched for where I had gone.

Suddenly, a laser had popped up, tracking itself towards me. I turned around and a multitude of lasers joined the first, a small voice saying,

"Target acquired."

"Shit."

I shot a portal at the wall behind them, falling into one in front of me and narrowly missing a bullet.

"Is anyone there?" it said.

The turrets had sleek, white bodies with a glowing red eye in the center. One thing I thought was interesting was the fact that they were tripedal. Good thing they can't walk.

I came to a large, circular door. It had an image of a cyan-colored person running. The center circle rotated and it quickly hissed open. There was a curtain of blue that looked like water. As my hand approached it, the sport closest grew brighter. I bravely stuck my hand through. It emanated a low hum. An elevator similar to the ones the two bots came in greeted me in the center of a room where the walls were screens. I drew closer. It displayed something about the production of Hard Light Bridges. Hard Light, woah new concept. I swept it off and entered the eager elevator. Before stepping in, I thought about where this was taking me. The circular door didn't reopen, and the elevator was my only way out.

"Might as well."

The glass doors slid closed and I descended through darkness.


	3. Alone

I descended for at least three minutes. The lights from the screens blinded me. Ahead, I was greeted by the same sliding door. There was a cube bouncing repeatedly on something in the middle of a lake of water. Taking a step forward, the door shut immediately behind me locking me in the test chamber. The walls around me were dilapidated, brown from rust or collapsing. The water surrounding me was shaded with a repulsive color of brown. Bending down at the edge of the black concrete island, I looked at my own reflection. I aged not even a day or an hour. Reflexively leaning forward, I dipped a finger into the water, instantly recoiling from a stinging sensation. "Shit motherfucker cocksucker is that...acid?" I belted out. Getting up, I spotted what the cube was bouncing on. There was a platform-like object propelling it back into the air. There was an identical one on both ends of the chamber and one in the center for the cube. "Dear lord," I said.

Thinking about how I was going to solve the chamber occupied me. I couldn't determine whether the cube was an obstacle or whether I needed it to complete the test. The only way to find out was to step on to the plate and go across the water. Inching closer, I kept reminding myself to hold on tight to the portal gun. I jumped on to the plate and I was screaming and flying across the chamber. Thanks to the long-fall boots, I avoided being crushed to a mush. I spotted another circular platform in the corner. Stepping on it, I saw that the exit door opened. As soon as I removed my foot however, the door reverted closed.

I needed to get that cube somehow, but it was as large as I was. Then suddenly, I felt a third button on the portal gun. I wondered...

I launched myself into the air again and pressing the button, I grabbed the cube and brought it back to the button. Before I stepped away from the button, there was a massive explosion, one larger than the others I felt. The acid pools rippled. The observation room glass cracked and the shards fell into the water. Suddenly, the door sparked and its two halves closed and reopened at sparse intervals. Some of the lights went out. The floor quivered then slowly descended into the acid pool. _Yay_.

The cube was beginning to fall off the button and I needed to get to the exit fast. There were no possible ways I could portal through the door. I kept tripping as I ran for the door, since the floor kept trembling. The chamber rumbled and a large number of the ceiling tiles came down, the acid filling up the other side. There was still enough force to keep the cube on the button. I jumped through, watching from the catwalk as the test chamber descended into the abyss.

Time for yet another elevator ride.

I took in a deep breath.

* * *

I entered the next test chamber. After the door closed, to my right I noticed a large illuminated sign with the elongated numbers "08" near the top. I stepped back as I watched panels in a corner at the top line themselves into place. Two floor panels lifted themselves up to make a stairway for me to an elevated region of the chamber. There were no visible portable surfaces. I was walking up the stairs when suddenly one of the blue fields I saw when I exited a chamber turned on. I ignored it and passed right through it. On the side of the field closest to the wall, there was a glass wall with a hole and a button next to it. There was a laser in the very back. I attempted shooting a portal through the field, yet it always fizzled. I then concluded it probably blocked portals, so I shot my primary through the hole. I pressed the button and a cube with lenses all over itself dropped from a vent. Unknowingly, I passed through the field and my primary portal disappeared.

"Well that's not fair."

I took the cube through the field and it disintegrated to sparking black particles.

"Well shit."

I tried shooting portals again inside the field. I noticed the large red laser. Thinking it was an averagely-powered laser, I stepped right through it. My leg burned like hell.

"Mother of Christ Jesus, what the hell!?"

Turns out acid pools aren't the only hazard here. Falling through an endless abyss, drowning in acid, and burning to death from a laser are your three possible choices. Oh and how dare I forget, being shot by turrets is another possibility. I jumped over the laser and retrieved the cube. Bringing it back inside the field, I became unsure of what to do with it.

I noticed every time I picked it up with the portal gun, it always oriented itself a specific direction.

I experimented with the laser. Turns out it bent the laser to a different direction. There was a circular receiver laying in front of me. I aimed the laser towards it and like clockwork, the door opened.

Unconsciously, I walked through the field. I grumbled, almost about to punch myself in the face when I realized that the door would still be open if the portals were gone.

Another field awaited me, and entered the same old elevator.

* * *

I walked through a short hallway to my next test. Before I entered, a sign informed that this was Test Chamber 12.

I instantly noted the two large pools of acid to my left and right. On my right there was a button that connected to a dispenser that held a cube. I looked left and noted a portable surface on top a blue strip of light. _Dear god._ I shot my primary. There was small rumble and the panel on top of my portal swung off and into the water. Going through my secondary, I looked up at the hole to find another portable surface. Curiosity winning over me, I ventured into that area. I nearly tripped over a half-eaten can of Aperture Science Canned Beans. I never knew Aperture provided food. Going in deeper, there were hordes of cans laying all over the place. _Dear lord I wonder how much methane this guy produced from all these beans._ There were assorted coffee mugs littering the floor. Then I saw a large fresco painted on the white concrete that decorated 90% of most test chambers. The fresco displayed a crude image of GLaDOS saying "Who are you?". Lightning bolts and more words littered the painting.

"Creepy."

I jumped back down into the test, constantly thinking I was going to fall through the blue thing. This probably must have been the "Hard Light Bridge" those screens were talking about. They looked the same. I shot another portal in front of me and suddenly I was pushed forward by a bridge that hit me in the back. I shot that portal back where the vent was so that I could capture a cube.

I was in the middle of the pool when suddenly the test chamber began to rumble again.

"God dammit."

I set the cube and portal gun down and laid flat on the bridge hoping a ceiling panel wouldn't fall on me. After a few wall panels collapsed, I continued my walk escorting the cube to its rightful place on the big red button.

Then the same-old elevator journey through darkness.


End file.
